#LADSOUS2013
Puts
a Video Face
on a Problem
from UN to DRC
and Haiti,
Sudan, Drones
and Rape
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 27 --
When a person
committing or
covering up
crimes or
violations of
human rights
is barely
known by the
public, what
is the next
step?
Focusing
on
Joseph Kony of
the Lord's
Resistance
Army from
Uganda in
2012, a
campaign
launched a
slick 30
minute video
and a Twitter
hashtag:
#KONY2012.
At
the UN, Inner
City Press
asked
officials and
diplomats
about
#KONY2012.
More recently,
now in January
2013, Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Office of the
Spokesperson
to respond to
Uganda's
claims that
Kony is in
Darfur, where
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations has
a $1.5 billion
peacekeeping
mission. The
UN has yet to
answer.
But
there another
figure, who
refuses Press
questions
about Darfur,
Kony and the
Congo who
deserves to be
better known:
DPKO chief
Herve Ladsous.
Click
here for a
first profile
of Ladsous.
Here is the
original
script only
some of which
made it in
this time:
The
United Nations
was created in
the ruins of
World War II.
It was
supposed to
protect future
generations
from the
scourge of
war, and to
uphold human
rights
principles
including
freedom of
speech and of
the press.
That
was then.
This
is now.
In
2012 in
Central
Africa, in the
village of
Minova in
Eastern Congo,
126 women were
raped by
soldiers in
the Congolese
Army.
The UN
has a $1
billion a year
peacekeeping
mission there.
Did the UN
stop these
rapes, or go
after the
rapists?
No.
In
fact, the UN
works with the
Congolese
Army, and so
it seems it
did not want
to face up to
its partners'
crimes. This
despite what
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon calls
his "Human
Rights Due
Diligence"
policy,
prohibiting
the UN from
supporting or
working with
units which
commit rape or
other abuses.
Who is
responsible
for this?
Well,
the head of
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations is
Herve Ladsous.
And
who is Herve
Ladsous?
He is
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
that UN
position, and
after being
rejected by
Kofi Annan he
got it under
Ban Ki-moon
without any
interview:
France just
put him in the
post.
When
Inner City
Press began
asking Ladsous
about the
Congo, about
peacekeepers
bring cholera
into Haiti and
him taking
advice from a
general from
Sri Lanka
depicted
engaged in war
crimes in the
UN's own
reports,
Ladsous
refused to
answer.
In
fact, he said
"Mister I
won't answer
your questions
until you stop
insulting me."
But
are questions
about facts
some kind of
insult?
We did
more research
and found that
Ladsous, as a
French
diplomat at
the UN in
1994, defended
the French
policy of
helping those
response for
the genocide
in Rwanda to
get away.
Now
Ladsous is
involved on
the Rwanda -
Congo border
again, pushing
through a plan
to for the UN
to use drones.
He started the
procurement
even before he
had any
approval. He
would not
answer
questions.
What
can be done
about this?
The
problem, as
they say, is
the 99.9% of
people have
never heard of
Herve Ladsous.
To
solve these
problems that
has to change.
That is one
purpose of
this video,
resonating off
another.
In
this year,
2013, we aim
to more
closely cover
Herve Ladsous.
More people
should know
about him.
How he
directed his
spokesman to
grab the UN TV
microphone to
avoid Press
questions
about the
Minova rapes.
How he
took friendly
journalists
out into the
hall for
private
briefing, then
used them to
declare war in
the Congo -
anonymously,
of course.
Ladsous
is
anonymous.
Until now.
Until this
year.
You
can be part of
this. Say it.
Say the name.
Ladsous. Even
though it's
French, you
pronounce the
final S.
LadSOUS. Like
Doctor Seuss.
I will
not answer
questions then
I'll only
answer to my
friends
I will buy
drones from
Thales in
France
I won't do
stakeouts or
take a chance.
Say
it. In 2013.
Ladsous.
Ladsous 2013.
We can do
this.
, 
